Method of making a bracket



July 3, 1962 v J. HOLTZ METHOD OF MAKING A BRACKET Filed June 25, 1 960 INVEN TOR.

JACOB HOLTZ 7 tion of the length of the base 26 of Unite Filed June 23, 1969, Ser. No. 38,347 1 Claim. (Cl. 29-150) This invention relates to a method of making a bracket which is adapted for fastening a leg to a chair seat, or to a table top, and for similar purposes.

In order to reduce shipping and storage costs, it is the practice to ship a table, or a chair, or the like, in at least a partly dismantled condition, that is, with the legs detached from the table top, or chair seat.

The object of the invention is to produce an improved method of making a bracket of the type set forth which will be inexpensive to produce, which will be easy to use and which will have the necessary rigidity.

The full nature of the invention will be understood from the following specification and the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view showing the first step in making the bracket.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an intermediate step in making the bracket.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the completed bracket.

According to my invention, the bracket is made of any suitable material, such as cold rolled steel, which is sufliciently rigid, which can be easily stamped and punched, and which is malleable enough to be bent from the flat condition of FIG. 1, first to the position of FIG. 2 and then to the position of FIG. 3.

The first step in making the bracket is to stamp out blank of the desired hickness, size and shape and, simultaneously, to punch holes 12 of the blank, holes 14, elongated openings 16 and generally triangular recesses 18 near the edge of a long side of said blank, to produce marginal portions 20 and central tab 22.

The next step is to bend the blank along the broken line in FIG. 1 to produce an elongated section which includes marginal portions 20 and tab 22 and which is disposed at a substantially right angle position relative to the remaining body portion 24 of the blank. It will be noted that marginal portions 20 and tab 22 contain holes 14 and openings 16, and that in the finished bracket the marginal portion and the central tab are co-planar.

The third step in making the bracket is to bend the body portion 24 of the blank around a mandrel, not shown, into the generally cylindrical form shown in FIG. 3, and to dispose marginal portions 20 on either side of central tab 22. It will be noted that the space between tab 22 and each of the adjacent marginal portions 20 is a functhe corresponding recess 18,

To use the bracket, the upper end 28 of a table or chair leg is inserted in the cylindrical portion of the bracket,

' and a bolt 27 is passed through openings 12 and tightened slightly to hold the leg in position. Marginal portions 20 and tab 22 are then presented to the under side of the table top, or chair seat, and are secured in position by screws passing through holes 14. The leg 28 is then pushed tightly up against the under side of the table top near the short edges ice or chair seat, and the bracket is tightly clamped about the upper end of the leg.

The provision of elongated openings 16 permits predrilling of the table top or chair seat for receiving the screws which pass through holes 14 and 16, thus facilitating the assembly operation for the householder, who only needs to register holes 14 with the holes in the table top or chair seat and to apply the fastening screws. It will be noted that in the completed bracket, holes 16 are elongated in the direction in which the sides of the cylindrical portion of the bracket move in response to the ti ghtening of bolt 27. This permits the bracket to be clamped about the leg even after the bracket has been fully secured in position. In other words, the bracket may be completely fastened to the underside of a table top, or chair seat, so that the purchaser need only insert the upper end of the leg into the bracket and tighten bolt 27. The leg may be made of pipe, or of rod stock, or of wood, etc.

I have discovered that by providing the triangular recesses with their bases 26 disposed along the bend line of the blank, I can provide additional tab 22, which gives the bracket a three-point support, by first bending the blank to the position of FIG. 2 and then to the position of FIG. 3. This two-step bending of the blank makes it unnecessary to cut the blank out, as at 30, and therefore the bracket is not weakened.

What I claim is:

The method of making a bracket for fastening a leg an article of furniture which method includes taking a substantially rectangular blank 10,

punching spaced, substantially triangular segments out of one long side of said blank to produce an isolated, central tab 22, punching a hole 14 near the outer edge of said tab, punching linearly aligned holes 14, 16 near the edge of the marginal portions 20 on either side of said tab, punching symmetrical holes 12 near the edges of the opposite short sides of said blank,

bending said tab and said adjacent marginal portions in one direction along a line passing through the junction of said tab with the remaining portion of said blank to form an elongated section which includes said tab and said marginal portions and which is disposed substantially normal to the remaining portion 24 of the blank,

and reverse bending said remaining portion 24 to form a collar for receiving the leg, with said elongated section extending radially outwardly from said collar for fastening to a flat surface of an article of furniture.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,386,739 Stoll et al Aug. 9, 1921 1,389,008 Pohle Aug. 30, 1921 1,508,008 Bowen Sept. 9, 1924 1,698,139 McElroy Ian. 8, 1929 2,312,893 FOY Mar. 2, 1943 2,822,228 Comer Feb. 4, 1958 2,905,422 Sacharow Sept. 22, 1959 

